The comedian Alan Davies has made a £1,000 donation to the Hillsborough Justice Campaign after comments he made about the club's refusal to play on 15 April, the anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, incurred the wrath of fans.

Liverpool's policy has forced their semi-final against Everton to be played this Saturday, and thus pushed Chelsea's match against Tottenham Hotspur to Sunday 15 April – three days before the first leg of their Champions League semi-final against Barcelona. Davies suggested that the priority should have been to give Chelsea an extra day to prepare for that match.

"Liverpool and the 15th, that gets on my tits that shit," said Davies on his football podcast, The Tuesday Club. "What are you talking about, 'We won't play on the day'? Why can't they? My mum died on 22 August. I don't stay in all day on 22 August. Do they play on the date of the Heysel Stadium disaster? How many dates do they not play on? Do Man United play on the date of Munich? Do Rangers play on the date when all their fans died in that disaster whatever year that was – 1971?"

He mocked the Liverpool manager, Kenny Dalglish. "Every interview he's given this season he looks like he wants to headbutt the interviewer," he said. "This tight-mouthed, furious, frowning, leaning-forward, bitter Glaswegian ranting: 'Liverpool FC do not play on April 15th.'" Davies admitted that his impression of the Scot was "terrible", adding: "I can't do him because I hate him."

The comedian, an Arsenal supporter, suggested that the match between Chelsea and his own club, which falls between the two legs of their Champions League semi-final, should be postponed. "Hillsborough is the most awful thing that's happened in my life, in terms of football," he said. "It's one of the worst tragedies in English peacetime history. But it's ridiculous that they refuse to play on that day any more."

Davies later took to Twitter to deny that he had been disrespectful to the victims of the tragedy and to apologise to those offended. He wrote that "the tone I took on the podcast was inappropriate for this subject". "I support the campaign for justice for the 96 [victims]," he wrote. "I said the Hillsborough disaster was the worst event in modern peacetime history. I was on a terrace listening to a radio as it happened. Many disagree but I feel that the Liverpool v Everton semi-final could be played on Apr 15. Apologies to those upset by that situation."

Davies also retweeted many abusive messages he had received from Liverpool supporters, some of them death threats.